


A Rich Man's Cloak

by HoneySempai



Series: A Cord of Three Strands [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supersoldier Peggy Carter, Anxiety, CACW rewrite I guess, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, post-CATWS
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 02:05:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11910954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoneySempai/pseuds/HoneySempai
Summary: BREAKING: WINTER SOLDIER KILLED IRON MAN'S PARENTS





	A Rich Man's Cloak

**Author's Note:**

> This installation of the Zooropa series is based on the song "[The First Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEIacDGPNws)". According to the band, the song is about the Prodigal Son, who, after forsaking his profligate ways and returning home, ends up deciding to leave again. Bono has called it an ode to those who can live without faith. The [lyrics](http://www.u2.com/lyrics/132) not only perfectly describe Tony's relationships with Pepper, Rhodey, and Howard, but they are so completely "him" in feeling, so full of restlessness and self-reproach, that I couldn't possibly use it for anyone else's story.
> 
> This story corresponds with Chapters 3 - 5 of _Last of Days_ , and then goes beyond that.

"I'm too sexy for my love / Too sexy for my love / Love's going to leave me~"

Tony is under strict doctor's orders to rest after having major surgery. So Tony is, of course, very busy rebuilding the mansion instead, though after a true fight, rather than a witty quibble, with Pepper, he's limited himself to minor, mainly decorative projects with frequent breaks. After an _actual_ witty quibble, and a complaint from JARVIS of all people, Tony's kept his 90s novelty pop under the control of earbuds, though anyone within earshot and paying attention would know exactly what he was listening to.

Pepper is the former but not the latter, hunched over as she is at the dining room table studying her StarkPad, and that just won't do.

"I'm too sexy for my shirt / Too sexy for my shirt / So sexy it hur~ts!" 

Still no response, and naming a city, a state, and an entire country that he's too sexy for doesn't capture her focus, either. This calls for drastic measures.

"And I'm too sexy for your party," Tony croons, putting his hands on Pepper's shoulders and making sure to dance hard enough against her chair that he jostles it. "Too sexy for your party / No way I'm...shit."

**_POSSIBLE TERROR ATTACK IN DC; SHIELD DIRECTOR FEARED DEAD_ **

Tony yanks out his earbuds and plucks the StarkPad out of Pepper's hands. That catches her attention, and she turns in her seat, watching him with a worried frown as he skims the article, his brow knitting deeper and deeper with every paragraph. 

_According to eyewitnesses, Agent Carter received a gunshot wound to the arm from a sniper hidden in the fire escape of a nearby building._

"JARVIS, call Peggy."

"Agent Carter's personal cell phone has been turned off," JARVIS reports, after a moment. 

"Call her _SHIELD_ cell phone then; aren't you supposed to be a really very intelligent system?"

That's turned off as well, as are both of Steve's phones, and their landline ("Who the fuck has a _landline_ anymore?") goes to voicemail ("No, seriously; if you don't pick it up why even fucking bother?"). JARVIS dutifully tries to call Natasha next, to no avail, and Rhodey's lines are either ignored or busy, including the line to the War Machine armor.

"I'm gonna put in an override next I see him," Tony mutters.

"Call Clint," Pepper says. "Maybe he heard from Natasha," she explains, when Tony turns a questioning gaze on her.

"I'm _busy_ ," is Clint's grumpy whine when he picks up.

"You heard from Tauriel lately?" Tony asks. "Like, in the last few hours?"

"Who...? No. Why?"

"Turn on the news, Legolas."

There's some shuffling, then muffled sounds of a TV being turned on and flipped to the right channel, and, after a moment, "...shit. Oh, _shit_."

"I don't know if you've got, like, some super secret spy way of communicating with each other, telepathy, carrier pigeons, whatever, but we've tried to reach her _and_ the Allies and...bupkis."

"I'll see what I can do."

The call clicks out of existence, and Pepper sends an apologetically helpless look at her boyfriend. "We could try Agent Hill?"

"I want the truth, not the official story."

"Well we're not getting _anything_ right now; maybe we can at least get a jumping-off point with her. JARVIS, call Agent Hill."

"As you wish, Miss Potts."

Agent Hill's phone falls into step with the others and goes to voicemail. Another round of calls to all parties meets with failure, and a third attempt is interrupted by an incoming call.

"I can't reach her," Clint reports, not bothering to hide his worry. "I tried Cap and Carter, too; nothin' doin'."

"Yeah, we've tried them, too, and Rhodey and Hill," Pepper says.

"D'you try Sharon yet?"

"No, but that's a good idea. JARVIS?"

A five-minute long twenty seconds pass before Sharon's recorded voice fills the room, and JARVIS cuts it off before the answering machine can catch three people's frustrated noises and swearing.

"All right, well," Tony says, clapping his hands together. "This seems like a call of duty if there ever was one. Barton, where you at? Maybe I can pick you up on the way."

"Oh no you don't," Pepper says, grabbing Tony's shoulder before he can walk away from her.

"Oh, yes I do?" Tony replies, turning around to face her with an incredulous look.

"You just had a major surgery! And you may have browbeaten me into letting you out of bed, but you are not setting foot in an Iron Man suit until at least two doctors sign off on it."

"Pep, darling, you know I usually have naught but the utmost respect for your wisdom, if admittedly not perfect obedience to it, but I think this counts as extenuating circumstances."

"You don't know that."

"Pepper has a point," Clint says, the reluctance dripping from his tone being the only thing preventing Tony from rounding on his invisible presence. " _One_ of them would have reached out to us if they needed us. No way every last one of them could be..." The possibility is too awful to entertain as anything more than a mental abstraction. "And we don't know what we'd be walking in on. If we seek them out while they're undercover, we could be putting them in danger."

"So your cunning plan is...?"

"Watch the situation, see what develops. Wait to hear from them."

"Great plan, Merida. That's proactive."

"If anything catastrophic happens, I'll be ready for pick-up," Clint continues, just pointed enough. "I'll be in Chicago."

"Why _Chicago_ of all hellscapes?"

"I like the pizza."

"We'll be in touch, Clint, thank you," Pepper says, before Tony can start an inane argument, and JARVIS ends the call.

"What a jackass. Everyone knows New York has the best pizza."

"You mean New Jersey," Pepper mutters.

"Traitor. How dare you."

"I'm sorry I don't want you to kill yourself unnecessarily."

"Unnece--Pepper! Peggy just got a shot in the arm in the worst possible way, Hell probably now _hath_ like a woman scorned, we can't _reach_ anybody--"

"And you cannot help them if you have an embolism on your way over! Clint has the right idea, and you know it. You hate it, but you know it. _I_ hate it, but I know it. You think I don't want to..."

She trails off, looking down at her hands before she balls them into fists. Tony had put off the surgery for almost three months while he and Bruce and Helen Cho, a former AIM employee who was unceremoniously fired years ago when Killian's ambitions turned from therapy to warfare, worked on a cure for Extremis, which in retrospect appears to be the worst decision they could have made.

"We just have to wait and see how things progress," Pepper continues, voice controlled. "I won't stop you if it really _is_ an emergency and you're desperately needed, but--"

"Right, right," Tony interrupts, trying to wave his hand dismissively and not quite making it. "I know. Stroke, heart attack, lung failure, infection, heartburn, nausea, indigestion--"

Pepper doesn't quite have the heart to swat him, and he shows his sympathy with a soft pat to her neck and a few gentle sweeps of his thumb over her cheek. He waits until she smiles at him to let her go and turn on his heel, towards the stairs down to the basement.

"Tony? What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna go see if I can put Life Support in the suit, what do you think I'm doing?"

"Really, Tony?"

"Extenuating. Circumstances."

Pepper sighs extra loudly as Tony marches down the stairs, but it hangs in the air on a cloud of barely-hidden empathy, so Tony withholds any sort of snotty comeback.

*

He doesn't manage it by the time Pepper orders Chinese for dinner, or by the time she gives up convincing him to come up and actually eat it. What _does_ happen is confirmation of Fury's death, which Pepper watches with her lower lip caught between her teeth, and of the continuing investigation into what the news anchors are becoming increasingly comfortable referring to as a terrorist attack.

"Of particular interest is this burqa-clad woman," Christine Everheart reports on behalf of WHIH, a cell phone clip of said woman stealing a car at gunpoint playing in the bottom right corner of the screen. "Anyone with information is encouraged to come forward..."

"I got your information right here, Christine," Pepper mutters around a chopsticks' pinch of shrimp lo mein. "That's an abaya, not a burqa; how's it feel to know you're the reason why the terrorists hate us?"

"...One moment, we're getting breaking news of an incident that's just occurred at Shenandoah National Park..."

There's a few moments of fumbling, and then the camera cuts to a live feed of a reporter in the park, flanked by a group of flustered-looking civilians.

"Yeah, Christine, I'm live here in Shenandoah, where campers are saying that they witnessed a mid-air altercation between an unidentified aircraft and the armored superhero known as _War Machine_..."

"JARVIS, call Rhodey."

Another round of calls and texts to Rhodey, and Steve and Peggy and Natasha and Maria and Sharon, go unanswered, and Pepper allows herself a moment to press her forehead against the table and release a frustrated moan. Tony keeps a TV in the basement that she hasn't overheard but she just _knows_ is blaring over the noise of his work, so she doesn't need to go downstairs to inform him of the latest developments.

There could be any number of reasons they're not responding, or reaching out. Rhodey does counter-terrorist missions by himself all the time. Natasha's whole life is undercover. Steve and Peggy could be, probably _are_ leading a team into discovering Fury's murderer or the terrorist cell in DC right now. They might not need Tony, or his presence could cause problems. And anyway Tony is, obviously, on convalescent leave from the Avengers Initiative, and she had made it very clear to all of them that he was not to be summoned except in the most dire of emergencies. _Tony_ had even tried to make that clear; she was sure that he had gone back and undercut himself when she wasn't around, but she had the feeling that his fellow Avengers were more inclined to indulge her than him.

He's been doing...okay. Sailed through the surgery like he does almost everything else. All the suits except one are gone, and he's been good about letting it sit, no upgrades, only maintenance. The house and the 2014 Expo have been Tony's main topics of conversation, and these don't feel like feints; Pepper is wise to his verbal tics. He's always been happiest either building or fixing things, and the two projects provide ample room for him to indulge himself.

She's not dumb enough to believe that the world will never need Iron Man again, or vice-versa, but she _is_ human enough to have hoped that day wouldn't have come so soon.

It hasn't come _yet_ , she tells herself firmly. There could be any number of reasons...

"JARVIS?"

"I have sent text messages to all mobile devices belonging to your missing friends and associates, Ms. Potts."

"Thanks, JAR'."

*

At about 3 in the morning Tony jerks awake from where his face is planted against the chest of his Iron Man armor. All coffee and tea in the mansion is decaf, per doctor's orders and Pepper's determination to follow them, and the tiny amounts of caffeine that manage to remain are definitely not enough to pull an all-nighter on.

There's a soft _fwump_ at his heels, and he glances down to investigate. Evidently at some point during these ungodly hours Pepper had draped a blanket over his shoulders, and a quick glance around the room finds her curled up on a swivel chair, wrapped in another blanket and resting her head on a throw pillow transplanted from the couch upstairs to his work desk.

The new basement is a bunker compared to its predecessor, with better defenses more akin to those he installed in the Tower post-Loki. He'd given serious thought to putting the bedroom down here, but figured Pepper would object to living like they were still at the height of the Cold War.

She seems to have made an exception tonight, for which he's unspeakably grateful.

"There have been no additional news or attempts to reach you, sir," JARVIS reports dutifully, in a whisper. 

"Fantastic," Tony yawns, scrubbing a hand over his face.

"Shall I attempt to contact Colonel Rhodes and the rest of them?"

"Does the pope shit in the woods?"

"I'm actually relatively sure that--"

" _Yes_ , attempt to contact Colonel Rhodes and the rest of them."

Third time's the curse, because when all tries end in failure, Tony's so distracted that he trips over the foot of his suit, stubbing his big toe. Thankfully he gulps down his swearing before it can wake Pepper, pressing his forehead hard against the suit's shoulder and squinting his eyes shut against the pain.

"Sir?"

Tony's eyes peel themselves apart, the rheum gluing them together sticking along the end of his eyelids. The atomic clock across the room reveals that he's been asleep on his feet for another hour or so.

"Yeah?"

"You may want to turn your attention to the news."

Pepper stretches awake as JARVIS speaks, and she blinks aware as JARVIS increases the volume on the TV.

At first both Tony and Pepper think that they're watching footage from 9/11. The thought to ask why JARVIS wants them to see this even passes through Tony's mind before he realizes that the building collapsing is the Triskelion, and the weapons bringing it down are the new helicarriers whose engines he helped design. 

"...thousands of classified SHIELD documents have been released," the news anchor speaks over the destruction. "It is unclear who has released them, and who or what is responsible for..."

"Oh my God," Pepper whispers beside Tony's numb shock. "Oh, Jesus..."

"I have already sent messages to all the relevant parties," JARVIS says.

"Knew I kept you around for something," Tony mutters, holding his arm out for his first piece of armor flying onto his wrist.

"Sir, all flights have been grounded," JARVIS says. "If you leave in the Iron Man suit, you _will_ be shot down."

"You think I can't fucking outfly--"

"You will _not_ ," Pepper snaps, grabbing Tony's other arm and yanking it down before it can attract the armor. "No. Absolutely not."

"Pepper, do you honestly think that a couple missiles--"

" _Yes_ I think that a couple missiles will at least burst a blood vessel in your brain!"

"Pepper, look...Pepper, _look!_ " Tony grabs her by the chin with his free hand and forces her head to turn; behind them the live feed gets a clear view of War Machine shooting down an attacking quinjet as the helicarrier drops below him. "I'm sorry, I adore you, but this is _Wrath of Khan_ , and I'm gonna have to be Mr. Spock."

Wrist, arm, calf, and thigh armor fly and mould onto him even as he speaks, and the chest plate covers his torso once he's done. Pepper gets in one last weak protest of his name just as the helmet covers his head, and he blasts up the stairs before she can say anything more.

*

"Call Hawkeye."

Tony yearns for something to punch--maybe he can grab a goose or something right out of the air, pull off the opposite of a birdstrike--and the longing only grows as it takes a moment for Clint to pick up the call. A string of curses is leaving his mouth by the time Clint does pick up, and Clint barely has time to mutter "Well screw you too then" before Tony barks "What took you so long? Romanoff contact you?"

"No," Clint says, a little softly, a little dark.

"Well then this is no time for you to indulge your phone sex addiction. Are you watching the news?"

"Why, did something big happen?" Clint snarks.

"Gimme your exact location. I'm on my way to--fuck! Shit!"

The first of the forewarned projectiles, sent from a US Air Force plane tailing him, comes flying and he dodges it; there's a pull of muscle at the back of his head that he attempts to ignore.

"The FAA can _lick my ass_."

"Keep low to the ground. I'm at the foot of the Sears Tower, west side."

"Hope you packed a snack, I'll be there in twenty minutes. If I don't get--" he flips over and aims a repulsor beam, blasting an incoming missile into futile little pieces, "--exploded to death first."

"That seems to be a running theme with us," Clint manages to joke with some genuine humor before he ends the communication and Tony has to destroy a third missile. JARVIS keeps a steady stream of information playing in Tony's ear, though he hears nothing past "evidence that SHIELD was infiltrated by Hydra as early as the agency's inception" because _what_? His father had _founded_ SHIELD, he would have fucking _known_ if he hired HYDRA agents. Does CapCarter know this? Does Rhodey or Natasha? How long have they known? Why didn't they _tell_ \--

"Fuck!" The third attack almost gets him, and he swoops low to the ground like Clint suggested, using the canyons that he's passing over as defensive cover. Well, this certainly explains why the military is firing on him; SHIELD agents usually get away with ducking around federal regulations but if it turns out that they're really terrorists all the way down, then--

Oh God. Oh shit. If SHIELD is Hydra, he's been working with Nazis. He's been accepting missions from _Nazis_ , he gave his designs to _Nazis_. Phil Coulson overrode JARVIS's programming and moseyed on into the Tower like it was nothing, and he could have been heiling Hitler the entire goddamn time. Why is Tony trusting that Hawkeye isn't one of them either? Barton's as white and straight and goyishe as they come--

The plane above him suddenly sails straight past him, pursued by two more fighter jets, but instead of doubling back to attack Tony all three suddenly disappear into the southern horizon, towards Mexico.

"Um...?"

"Agents of HYDRA are being exposed within all branches of the military," JARVIS supplies. "My guess is that the pilot pursuing you was just revealed to be one."

The military. The same military that tried to appropriate the Iron Man suit six years ago. The same military Rhodey's given his MIT education and unwavering loyalty to. Rhodey's far too not-white for Hydra's tastes, but they're probably not beyond manipulating a rocket scientist no matter how much melanin he has. Why didn't Rhodey _call him_ \--

"Sir? Sir, your pulse is--"

Is Rhodey fighting them alone? Where are Cap and Lady Cap? Are they dead? Did Hydra kill them? No way they're not Undesirables #1 & 2\. Tony himself is probably up there on the list--

His foot catches on a rock outcropping, and the thought that someone in an Air Force plane who hasn't been exposed yet might be on their way to the mansion stops him from picking himself back up when he skids into the side of the canyon wall and falls on the plateau.

"Pepper. JARVIS, call Pepper--"

"Tony?" Pepper demands before Tony notices the call connect. "Tony, where are you? Are you okay?"

"Pepper get out of the mansion. Now."

"I'm already gone. Why, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, someone could be targeting it or they might not be, half the world's dirty, why are you already out of the mansion? Where are you going?"

"To DC, where do you think I'm going? Where are you?"

"God I don't know. Some...canyon, somewhere. Pepper, under absolutely _no_ circumstances should you be--"

"Tony."

"--going to DC."

"Tony. _Tony._ I need you to calm down. JARVIS says that your pulse is beating dangerously fast--"

"Gee I wonder why. Total mystery."

"Tony, if you have a heart attack, that's not gonna help anyone. Stay where you are, stay on the line, and breathe with me."

"I don't think we have time for the kumbaya stuff--"

"We have even less time for you to have an MI! For the love of _God_ , Tony, for once in your life would you please just _listen to me?_ "

It's the hysterical note that finally lets him give in to the weakness and heaviness that have been trying doggedly to take over his limbs, and he slumps reluctantly against the canyon wall.

"I will inform Hawkeye that you have been delayed," JARVIS offers helpfully. Tony grunts at him and tries to unclench his fists as Pepper asks if he's with her; he's been told that tension is entirely unhelpful when it comes to narrowly avoiding an attack, of either the heart or panic varieties.

"Sir?" JARVIS says after a few minutes, cutting Pepper off mid-count and Tony off mid-weak breath. "There's a text message from Colonel Rhodes to your phone."

"Bring it up," Tony barks immediately, and JARVIS sends the two-word message scrolling across the face screen. " _Not dead._ That's just vague enough to still piss me off. Call him."

JARVIS tries, and Tony resists the urge to smash his fist against the canyon when it goes to voicemail once again.

"Breathe, Tony," Pepper says, as if she can see him restraining himself. "Rhodey's all right."

"Rhodey's _not dead_ ; that doesn't mean he's all right. And it doesn't say anything about Cap or Peggy or Romanoff..."

"He'd say if they were hurt," Pepper tries to soothe. "JARVIS, how's he doing?"

"Resting heart rate at 120 bpm, Ms. Potts."

"Comin' down," Tony observes.

"Still too high. Stay where you are. Count of eight in, are you ready?"

There's a ringing noise in Tony's ear, and he answers the calls as Pepper groans aloud.

"Nat's okay," Clint reports. "She messaged me."

"What about everyone else?"

"Everyone's alive."

"Oh thank God," Pepper whispers, as Tony's heart starts to stop thumping in his ears.

"Cap's hurt, though. It's bad but Nat thinks it's not critical."

"What do you mean, _bad_?" Tony asks, as the thumping comes back.

"Couple GSWs, some head trauma. He fell in the Potomac at one point, so he inhaled some water, too."

"Oh God." There's gotta be something for that somewhere in the Judeo-Christian canon, right? Tony's not the praying sort, but Steve is, and _Please God--and Jesus, if You're actually a thing--don't let my favorite Highlander finally find out what can kill him_ sounds a little too immature to be apt.

"She's gonna call me properly when she knows more," Clint says. "In the meantime have JARVIS show you the news. It's crazy, man. Half our co-workers are fascists. I know everyone says that, but literally half our coworkers are _actual fucking fascists._ "

"How could this happen?" Pepper asks. "The news is saying they've been there from the beginning. Howard would've...wouldn't he have _known?_ "

"I know Operation Paperclip was a thing," Clint says.

"Then please enlighten us," Tony says. "What the blazing blue _fuck_ is Operation Paperclip?"

"Right after the war, SHIELD and a bunch of other agencies took in former Axis scientists. Gave 'em amnesty in exchange for their expertise. I know Arnim Zola was one of the Hydra scientists they kept."

"Arnim Zola? As in, _ran the Kreichsberg camp_ Zola? _Johann Schmidt's righthand man and personal dick-sucker_ Zola?"

"One and only."

"Oh my God," Pepper murmurs. "How could...how could they _do_ that, after...?"

"Because CapCarter were taking an ice nap," Tony spits. Leave it to Howard Stark to bulldoze right over such silly things as _loyalty_ and _the principle of the thing_ and _not working with Aryan supremacists_ in pursuit of an opportunity. 

"Zola kicked the bucket back in '72, but my guess is he managed to influence some of the people he worked with," Clint says. "And then _they_ hired other people who think like them. And it snowballed from there."

"Jesus," Pepper whispers. "Jesus, I can't believe this..."

"Sir, Colonel Rhodes..." JARVIS starts, before displaying Rhodey's newest text message. _I am so sorry for the radio silence man. We're all alive and at PCM in DC. I'll explain everything when you get here_

"Call Rhodey," Tony orders, and when after a moment of Rhodey's deliberation his call is picked up, he barks, "No, you will explain everything _now_."

"Yes sir," Rhodey mutters, the sarcasm half-hearted.

"First, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, Tones. Couple bumps and bruises but that's it."

"Great. Fantastic. I'm ecstatic, and I mean that. Now why the _fresh hell_ did you not call me?"

"We were afraid you were being watched," Rhodey says. "We didn't wanna risk you getting attacked, or giving ourselves away."

"Who's _we_?"

"Rhodey, please just tell us what happened from the beginning," Pepper cuts in.

"Okay. All right. So apparently, these new that were supposed to launch today, they had some sort of program in them that let them read the DNA of people on the ground. So they could shoot targets precisely."

"Well that sounds amazingly efficient and pants-shittingly terrifying," Tony says, physically feeling his blood pressure rising as he recalls how Fury had shared none of this with him when he asked for Tony's input on engine design.

"Fury suspected that someone was trying to sabotage the project, so he had a Natasha get some info off the ship that was supposed to launch the carriers onto a flash drive. They were supposed to meet up at a safehouse yesterday afternoon."

"But then someone killed Fury," Clint says.

"Well. Someone _attacked_ Fury."

"He's not dead?"

"I _told_ you," Tony throws in Pepper's direction.

"I was in my office when the mess downtown happened, and Agent Hill came to me there, asked me to keep an eye on the SHIELD building. So when I saw a quinjet leave a couple hours later, I followed it."

"To Shenandoah. We saw on the news."

"Yeah. Romanoff got hold of Cap and Agent Carter and they went to safehouse there to read the data off the flash drive. But it had a homing device on it, so they got...they got tracked. I had to War Machine the jet's ass while they fought on the ground."

"Did they get to read the drive first?" Pepper asks.

"Yeah. That's how they found out that hashtag-SHIELD-is-Hydra, as I'm sure you've heard by now. Apparently when Arnim Zola died they uploaded his mind into whatever computer system they had back then, and they've been transferring him between devices ever since, how creepy is that."

"Highly," Clint confirms.

"So...yeah, after that me and the Rebel Alliance booked it to a new safehouse, met up with Fury and Agents Hill and 13. There's a new guy, too, you'll probably see him on the news. Sam Wilson. And we, um, the eight of us broke into the Triskelion this morning to stop the launch."

"The eight of you," Tony repeats, equal parts faint and flat.

"Yeah. I mean, once Cap announced what the hell was happening, there were a lot more of us, but...well, we didn't manage to prevent the launch, so Cap and Wilson and I had to sabotage the carriers in the air. And meanwhile the Carters are kicking ass downstairs, and Fury and Romanoff are releasing all the files SHIELD-slash-Hydra have-- _had_ \--in the Triskelion. Because it's not just SHIELD, there's Hydra in Congress, in the...in the military..."

"I had some Air Force fascist tried to shoot me down," Tony confirms, with just enough sympathy.

"Where are you guys?"

"Um, Barton's in Chicago. I'm...somewhere in the Southwest. Pepper's..."

"I'm out of Malibu now," Pepper fills in. "Heading towards DC."

"Okay. _Please_ be careful. They're, those Hydra people, they're probably going to try to make a couple last stands before they're caught. Nat released everything she could get her hands on. It might not have been all of it, but it's...it's a hell of a lot."

"You be careful too," Pepper says earnestly. "Where are you now?"

"We're at PCM in DC. Everyone's pretty okay, except Cap; he got...he took a couple bad hits."

"How?" Clint asks. "Not to disparage everyone else's talents, especially not Nat's, but it feels like Cap's the one least likely to get that wrecked."

"Well..." There's a long pause. "Okay. You guys aren't going to believe this, but my hand to God, it's the truth. You know James Barnes? Bucky Barnes?"

"I'm familiar with his work," Tony says.

"Well apparently. When he fell off the train in '45, he didn't...he didn't die."

"...I'm sorry?" Pepper asks.

"Whatever Zola did to him in Kreichsberg made him survive that trip down the Alps. And all the way into the 21st century, because some Hydra folks found him and...changed him."

"Changed...what? _How?_ "

"I have no idea. But we're probably gonna find out when the rest of these files make the news. Hydra...they brainwashed him or something, because they tried to use him to fight Cap and everyone in Shenandoah. And Cap again on one of the carriers."

"Oh my God," Pepper whispers. "Oh my God. Steve and Peggy...God, I can't imagine. Did Steve actually, actually fight him?"

"Well, yeah. He had to stop him from keeping the carriers in the air. But Cap was trying to...wake him up, I guess, at the same time. Make him remember."

"So he pulled his punches," Clint says. "And probably took some hits he didn't need to." Natasha had gotten more bruises than strictly necessary two years ago, during his own stint with mind control and her attempt to break him out of it.

"Where is he now? Barnes?" Tony asks.

"At PCM with the rest of us. Apparently the pair of 'em fell into the river, and Barnes got them both to shore. Carter found them on the riverbank and...subdued him, I guess."

"So it worked?" Pepper asks. "He remembers them?"

"No idea. He doesn't even remember his own damn name, apparently, he's been going by "the Winter Soldier" all these years. But he wasn't fighting Carter when me and Romanoff showed up to help, so I guess he recognizes them, or something like that. I'm not sure what's happening with them now; he got rushed off to Containment and I haven't seen any of them since."

"You let them know that we're coming, when you see them?" Pepper asks.

"Will do."

"I mean, I won't be there until the day after tomorrow at the earliest, driving..."

"Pep, I'm gonna double back and ride with you," Tony says, Rhodey's warning and the memory of the Air Force jet echoing through his mind. "If we're only at like Code Yellow right now, I don't need to hi-ho-Silver it to DC..."

"I'm gonna stay in Chicago for now, if anything comes up," Clint says. "I'll let you know if some Hydra goons show up that need dispatching. Or if I have to move for whatever reason."

"I'm staying in DC," Rhodey says. "Probably gonna be able to be a bit more responsive now that I'm not, you know, undercover."

"All right, then I'm gonna hang up now."

"'Bye Clint," Pepper says. "Be safe."

"Thanks Pep. You too."

Rhodey and Tony murmur their good-byes as Clint ends communication, and all three of them heave a shaky sigh at once, which gets the first laugh in almost twenty-four hours out of all of them.

"Don't rush to me, Tony," Pepper says. "I want you to take your time and calm down, okay?"

"Something wrong?" Rhodey asks.

"No," Tony says, at the same time Pepper says, "His heart rate is higher than it should be."

"Tones--"

"It's nothing. Adrenaline rush."

"You just had a major surgery--"

"Keep talking like Pepper and I'll start dating _you_."

"That a threat or a promise?"

"I could use the help," Pepper tacks on.

"Oh my God you two. Leave the threesomes to the old folks, okay?"

"Hey, you're the one who brought it up," Rhodey says.

"Mr. Stark's heart rate has gone down to 105 bpm," JARVIS pipes up. 

"All right. I want it down to 90 before he even _thinks_ about moving from where he is."

"Big talk from someone who took Aqua Teen Hunger _Eight People_ to wipe out an entire UN agency-turned-terrorist organization."

"We were kinda strapped for time, Tony. And ways to communicate with you. And people we could trust."

"Excuses, excuses."

"I mean it. None of us were particularly thrilled with our numbers. Or the plan. Not exactly easy knowin' you've been working for..."

He trails off, and Tony allows a gracious noise. The history wasn't quite the same, but it's not like Hydra and their conventional counterparts wouldn't have been just as happy to kill Rhodey's people off, too. In fact... "Who were they targeting? The Hydracarriers."

"Christ, who _weren't_ they targeting. The full list probably isn't compiled yet, but we're talking millions of people. Maybe billions. I'm assuming all of us, anyone involved in the Avengers, was top of the list."

Anyone involved. Shit. The Tower. "JARVIS, the Tower?"

"Still on lockdown, sir," JARVIS reports. "As are the main SI building and its sattelites."

"Is everyone...is everyone?"

"There have been a few...altercations, sir, but no fatalities or critical injuries thus far."

Altercations. That means he's _hired_ Nazis. 

"Oh my God. I'm going to be sick," Pepper says, for both Tony and herself.

"They would've consolidated themselves," Rhodey says. "Probably on the lower floors, too. To avoid getting hit."

"The physicians on staff are treating some of the more serious injuries," JARVIS says, having spoken to said doctors, who are among the few who know the codes to move from room to room during lockdown, in the meantime. "They do not expect there to be any loss of life, as of this moment."

"Oh thank God," Pepper breathes. 

"Good," Tony says, gulping air at the same time. "Good."

Pepper makes a vaguely frustrated noise. "Guys, my parents are trying to call me. Lemme just pick this up so they don't panic and I'll be right back on the line, okay?"

"Okay, Pep," Rhodey says, and Tony faintly agrees.

"Love you, Tony. Stay where you are."

"Yes ma'am," Tony replies, automatically, and then once Pepper has disconnected, "D'you call Mama Bird yet?"

"Not yet."

"Are you allergic to phone calls or something? Let your mother know you're not dead, you putz."

"You don't want me to stay on the line with you until Pepper gets back?"

That's tempting enough to make Tony hesitate, but, "Nah. Pepper's gonna call back as soon as she's done with Jude and Amanda anyway. If you could just check in when you know more about how Cap's doing, that'd be, y'know, cool."

"Of course, absolutely. But you're sure you want me to hang up?"

"...Yeah. I kinda...need a moment to process all this, here."

"Okay. Call if you need."

"Will. Thanks."

"100 bpm, sir," JARVIS says, once Rhodey hangs up. "You should be able to leave to join Ms. Potts in a few minutes."

"Good. Great. Fan-frigging-tastic."

"Would you like me to continue providing you with the latest developments?"

"Thought the point was to slow my pulse," Tony says, instead of _yes keep me updated, are you kidding me?_

"I will inform you only of any emergent news or threats to you and your loved ones' safety, then," JARVIS replies gamely.

"Thank you, JAR'."

"My pleasure, sir."

*

Pepper took the Caravan, as Tony likes to call it; a custom-built van whose inner arms can pluck the armor pieces off of Tony's body and store them neatly. It also houses emergency suitcases packed with changes of clothes, water bottles, non-perishable food, and travel-size toiletries. Tony meets it in Arizona, and after he's freed from the suit, takes one look at Pepper's red, pinched face, and slips into the passenger seat.

"How mad are you?" he asks, after about thirty seconds of silence.

Pepper drops her right hand into his left, lacing their fingers together, and squeezes to the point of some pain. She keeps that hold for a long time, only the slightest hint of relaxation letting him know that she's gone from _You could've killed yourself, you collosal idiot_ to _I know exactly what you were feeling and I can't blame you_.

He tells her that JARVIS is keeping mum unless something life-threatening comes up, for which she seems grateful; her parents had called because they had read that she as well as Tony had been on Hydra's kill list, and she's not up for hearing any more such news at the moment. She also doesn't protest when, upon hearing that, Tony pushes the button that tints the Caravan's windows and covers the van itself in armor.

Cap's okay, at least, according to Rhodey. Weak but conscious, wounds clean, head trauma not too awful, some fear of pneumonia. Barnes is in surgery, getting his left arm amputated because sometime between the 40s and today, the one he was born with was replaced by a metal prosthetic and weaponized with knives and gases.

"I can't imagine," Pepper whispers when Tony relays the news to her, her fingers working over and around Tony's. "I can't imagine. And I don't think I want to know."

Aside from JARVIS reporting that one non-Hydra person at the Tower had to be evacuated to the hospital for their injuries, it's rather easy to avoid hearing about the incident; they're mainly on long stretches of highway with very little traffic, and the Caravan is arc reactor-powered, so stopping for gas is unnecessary. They catch small snatches of information when they pull into rest stops (Pepper refuses to "just go in the woods"); mainly more big-name people who have been exposed--

"Hey remember how Stern tried to get his grubby little fingers on my suit a couple years ago? And you told me to be nice to him."

\--but also information on wars that were instigated or fed by Hydra, missions that SHIELD thought were civilian extractions or something equally innocuous that turned out to be moving fascists to safety or strategic points. There's apparently only one or two countries in the world that Hydra hasn't snaked its way into, which Tony hopes is going to prevent international warfare, as the nations can use each other's lies to counter grievances. Civil war seems inevitable for at least a few places, though.

All because SHIELD tried to use Zola. Logically, Tony knows that Hydra could have infiltrated SHIELD even without that particular mad doctor/dark wizard/whatever the hell he was; corruption happens in the best of organizations. And it's standard procedure to utilize defeated enemies rather than destroy them, and he knew Howard had considered the man to be easily squeezable, considering how he sang about the Valkyrie like the most weasely canary. 

Viscerally, this is one more way Howard fucked up. 

He wonders if it was Howard's idea. The elder Stark was a founder of SHIELD, but never a director; maybe taking Zola on wasn't his decision. But either way he _had_ to have worked with the man; they were their respective organizations' top innovative minds. Tony had demoted or fired people for _snarking_ at him; how could Howard work alongside someone who actively wanted people like him dead?

He hopes Steve is too distracted to think about this too much. And shit, weren't a whole bunch of their war buddies involved in SHIELD, too? Did they all know? Did they all agree that using the guy who got Barnes killed (well, "killed") was a great idea? Were any of them Hydra plants? Or turncoats? Was _Howard himself_ \--

Pepper lets him turn on the radio for news, for a good handful of minutes at a time, in any case. The files had been truly "dumped"; information was scattered and disorganized, and while decrypted, a lot of it was written in coded or deceptively simple language. Most stations are only able to repeat each other until one of them gets a breakthrough, and then the cycle repeats, and when the answers Tony wants don't come he makes himself turn off the radio.

Pepper had also, wisely, grabbed some of his post-op prescriptions, one of which is, as a side effect, a soporific. Tony reluctantly knocks himself out sometime in the afternoon, only waking up when Pepper pulls into the parking lot of a hotel in Texas.

"--reverse-engineering the famed serum that created Captain America," the radio is saying, as he comes to. "Documentation covering the 1940s through the 80s reveal multiple attempts at recreation, all of which failed, resulting in the deaths of their test subjects. A possibly viable recreation was accomplished in 1991 by the late Howard Stark, whose untimely death--"

Pepper hastily turns the radio off. Tony reaches over and puts it back on.

"--result of a car accident. In light of these recent developments, the cause of death may need to be revisited."

Tony sits up immediately.

"For the Daily Bugle, I'm Norah Winters."

"What?" Tony barks at the console. "Are you shitting me? Fuck you, Norah Winters, you can't just ride a guy hard and put him away wet with something like that!"

"Tony..."

"What the hell." He pushes another button, flipping the station; it's a commercial, and he does it again. "What the hell. That's some serious breach of journalistic integrity. If her boss wasn't J. Jonah Giant Dickweed her ass'd be out on the street right now."

"Tony."

Again; they're talking about something unrelated. Again; who plays music on a radio anymore? Again; nothing. "Oh _come on!_ "

"Tony. Tony, _stop_." Pepper drops her hand over his, not managing to pull it away but stilling his fingers, at least. "JARVIS?"

"Yes, Ms. Potts?"

"If there is any news regarding...regarding Tony's father, please inform us immediately."

"As you wish, ma'am."

"We're stopping for the night," Pepper says, after about twenty seconds have passed and they haven't moved. "JARVIS will keep us informed."

"You want us in a hotel? Where Hydra agents are? Might be?"

"...Put the suit on sentry mode," Pepper says, after a deep breath. "We can't sleep in the car."

"We are perfectly capable of--"

"Tony. We can't. sleep. in the car."

Tony's fingers twitch underneath her hand. It takes him a second to realize that they're trembling. After a few seconds Pepper is able to get enough of a hold to finally pry his hand away from the radio, and she guides him into helping her turn off the ignition.

*

"Sir?"

Much to Tony's annoyance, the medication hadn't completely worn off when he awoke in the parking lot. After the adrenaline rush of checking into a room in the thankfully empty lobby; insuring their anonymity to the outside world through a Do Not Contact request, an obscenely large cash tip, and the Iron Man suit lumbering menacingly behind them; and going through the motions of preparing themselves for bed; he'd actually been drained enough to pass out soon after hitting the sheets, despite his best attempts at staying awake. 

Now it's five in the morning, they're putting their stuff back in the van, and he actually feels _rested_ , what the hell is that.

"Yeah, JAR?" 

"You...wanted me to tell you if there was any news regarding your father."

Tony only just prevents himself from dropping one of the suitcases on his foot. Pepper, with her own case, goes still beside him. 

"Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Tell me."

"Perhaps I should...play the recording, sir."

"You can say it in Sanskrit for all I care, just tell me what you fucking know."

"The recording it is, then. I warn you, sir, this will be...incredibly difficult to hear."

"Breaking news," a recorded reporter says, as Tony barely notices Pepper taking his hand. "The most recent development in the SHIELD-Hydra leak regards the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark, the parents of Tony Stark, more commonly known as the superhero Iron Man. What had been ruled a car accident in 1991 has just been revealed as an assassination, planned by a Russian branch of HYDRA, and carried out by the Winter Soldier--"

_he's been going by "the Winter Soldier" all these years_

There's a part of Tony's brain that's aware of Pepper calling his name, or at least thinks that she should be right about now, her character being what it is. There's a part of him that registers JARVIS cutting off the recording to try to reason with him. There's even a moment when he's aware of how much pain is radiating throughout his body, starting in his chest and spreading to his stomach and throat; how difficult it's becoming to breathe. 

But those things are background noise to the feel of the armor closing around him, and by the time he's halfway through the state, he's completely forgotten them all.


End file.
